If you want to see a surprising amount of benefits from a seemingly small change to your health regimen, adding zinc to the mix will do the trick.
Zinc is responsible for more enzymatic reactions than all of the other trace minerals combined, making it super busy and noticeable when there’s a deficiency. But unfortunately, far too many people are deficient in this mineral.
When you’re missing out on zinc, you’re missing out on a lot of benefits. But not all of them are that well known. Below, we cover 7 surprising benefits offered by zinc to help showcase just how important this nutrient is.
1. Stabalizes insulin
Zinc plays a major role in maintaining insulin levels as well as helping insulin bind to your liver cells. The second most concentrated area of zinc cells within the body is your pancreas, which is where your insulin is created.
This is why zinc is very important for people with diabetes. But before a person gets diabetes, they get pre-diabetes, and before that, they get insulin resistance. Insulin is a hormone that, simply put, keeps blood sugar levels in check. Almost all diabetics have insulin resistance, and some researchers even believe most people have some sort of resistance to insulin. Unfortunately, how to prevent this resistance isn’t very well known.
What we do know is that the cells that create insulin get fatigued when people have insulin resistance. What this means is that the body isn’t able to create enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels because these cells are too tired, causing pre-diabetes.
Low levels of zinc have been linked to a higher risk of insulin resistance, and some researchers believe that this is because of there not being enough zinc in the pancreas to power the cells that make insulin.
To help your body make enough insulin and keep healthy blood sugar levels, it’s important to ensure you have enough zinc.
2. Supporting the soleus muscle
The third most concentrated tissue with zinc in the body is your muscles. Zinc is needed for muscle repair and regeneration. But even if someone is deficient in zinc, the muscles can still manage to get by, except for one. And that muscle is the soleus muscle.
The soleus muscle is a muscle deep in your calf that attaches to your Achilles tendon. It can stand a tremendous amount of load. And out of all of the muscles in your body, the soleus has the highest concentration of zinc.
The soleus is important for endurance – long walks, running, and playing sports. But when you’re deficient in zinc, the soleus can actually atrophy and weaken. It can also have a dysfunction in contraction/relaxation. All of this makes injuries within the knees, calf, and ankles more likely.
If you want to protect yourself from falls and maintain your stamina while walking, running, or exercising, it’s important to prop up this muscle with healthy zinc levels.
3. Boosting the thymus gland
The main gland that is involved in your immune system is called the thymus gland, and it’s located right above your heart.
If you’re deficient in zinc, this gland can atrophy and diminish the amount of powerful immune cells within your body, like t cells and antibodies. This will cause your body to be unable to properly fight infections, prlonging sickness unnecessarily.
This is just one of the reasons why zinc is so important for supporting the immune system.
4. Helps you see at night
People will tell you to eat carrots because it’s good for your eyes. This is because carrots contain vitamin A, which sharpens your eyesight. This includes increasing your ability to see at night.
Where does zinc come in?
Zinc actually helps activate vitamin A within the body for this function. So, if you want sharper eyes – including at night – you need to make sure you have vitamin A and zinc.
5. Prevents flaky skin
There’s also a lot of zinc inside your skin because your skin needs zinc to be smooth and healthy.
Without enough zinc, your skin will become dry and flaky. It will be roughened instead of nice and smooth. This is because zinc is integral in helping build up the structural proteins that make up your skin, like collagen and keratin.
6. Eases intestinal inflammation
Many have found that remedying inflammatory conditions within the gastrointestinal system, such as stomach ulcers, with zinc has great results.
When your body is low in zinc, the risk of getting inflammatory conditions within the body goes way up. And when you have inflammation within your intestine, that can actually block your ability to absorb zinc.
This is why so many people with gut issues also have skin issues.
If you have gut issues, it’s super important to increase your zinc intake and to find a way to do so that promises high absorption so that the inflammation doesn’t prevent your body from taking the mineral in.
7. Prostate health and testosterone
Out of anywhere in the body, the highest levels of zinc are located in the prostate (for men). This has to do with zinc’s involvement with sperm, testosterone, and other hormone levels. This is why low levels of zinc can actually cause low libido, fertility issues, and even a condition where the testicles atrophy called hypogonadism.
For men’s health, zinc is super important.
One small change for a lot of big changes
As you can see, zinc has many incredible benefits outside of its main benefits of boosting brain health, increasing cell function, and strengthening immunity.
It’s amazing that simply taking one supplement can assist your body so well.
Unfortunately, studies estimate that 1 in 4 people worldwide are deficient in zinc.
Don’t be one of them.
Our Micelle Liposomal Zinc ensures FULL absorption of this crucial mineral so that you actually see these benefits in your own body.
Plus, it comes in a delicious blueberry formula, sugar-free and naturally flavored with cold-pressed blueberry extract!